Hailey Upton took a deep breath as she walked up the steps to the house of her Sergeant's home. Usually she didn't mix business with after hours, except her one time fling with Adam Ruzek, and her drinks with her partner. She didn't really consider drinks with her partner mixing business with pleasure, because it was what made it get them to work the next day. It was what worked.

She had never been to Hank Voight's home. After Lindsay had left Chicago, Christmases at his house kind of stopped. With Olinsky gone as well, there wasn't much family for Voight. Olive had taken her and Justin's baby to Arizona and Hailey had only heard of her name mentioned once, that was it. She felt for her boss because he had a huge heart under his rusty exterior and somewhat shady ways. One thing was sure, Hailey knew Hank Voight would go to bat for her when push came to shove, and that's why she was on his team.

She sucked in her breath and knocked on the door, loudly, like she would on a suspect's door. Voight opened it up and chuckled as he opened the screen for her. "You don't have to break down my front door," he greeted.

She stepped inside and kicked off her flip flops. It was winter, but she was in shorts and a tank top, just coming from the gym and working out with Antonio and Kim. "Force of habit," she said.

Voight held a hand out and gestured to the living room as he went and grabbed another glass for her and poured a bourbon for her. "Figured you'd end up here eventually."

She raised an eyebrow as he handed her the glass. "Excuse me?"

"Lynch called me a couple weeks ago when they were first digging around on you. Are you surprised?"

She sipped slowly, having the bourbon hit slowly. "Not at all."

She was sitting down on the couch so Voight sat across from her in the loveseat, the TV, having C-SPAN on. "So you're here because they made you an offer."

Hailey took another sip of her alcohol. He poured a stiff drink. "They made me a damn good offer."

"Are you going to take it?"

She just looked at him.

"The fact that you're on my door step at 9 pm says that you're seriously thinking about taking the offer and I'm gonna either need to pry Rixton out of Narcotics again or find someone else."

"Morrison from Vice would be a good choice."

"Morrison and Halstead get a long a little too well for my liking," Voight muttered.

She chuckled. "Yeah, I know." She and Morrison went back to their high school days in Chicago and she knew Voight wasn't sure about Morrison's stability as well. Like Jay, he had a hard time transitioning from Iraq.

Voight took a sip of his own bourbon. "Lynch really wants you."

"Lynch also has a stick up his own ass and you know that. He's going to tell me what I want to hear so I take the job."

"The Special Agent in Charge of Chicago Division doesn't just offer jobs to people on a whim," Voight pointed out.

Hailey took a deep breath in. "It's not the first job offer."

Voight shrugged. "And it won't be the last, Upton. You're a good Detective."

"So what you're not saying is that if I turn down Lynch, other agencies are going to still offer me jobs?"

He finished his drink. "Why the hesitation?"

"The last time I left Chicago for a job, it did not end well," Hailey pointed out.

Voight remembered that the Booth op was technically FBI operated and she was right to have some hesitation leaving the safety of the Chicago Police Department. "Looks like you have some thinking to do."

She finished her drink. "Lynch say anything else?"

He shook his head. "More interested in your undercover skills."

Hailey knew that part of the plan but Voight didn't need to know. "Thanks for the drink."

"Am I going to find your resignation letter on my desk tomorrow morning? I do appreciate the heads up," Voight asked as she stood up to leave.

"I don't know. Like you said, I have some thinking to do," she said, shoving her feet in her flipflops.

She was halfway out the door when Voight's voice stopped her. "If you do take it, talk to your partner first."

"Why?"

"The last time he had a partner take a job for a federal agency, she left without a word. He deserves you telling him why," Voight said.

She nodded at her boss. "Yeah, he does."

That made her think as she walked to her truck and clicked the remote start. She had every intention of going back to her own place, having a really hot shower, and thinking about jumping off a cliff for Lynch. But instead she found herself turning down the streets to Jay's condo. This was going to be an even harder conversation that the one with Voight. Much harder.

She had a key to his condo and a fob so she let herself in the front door and took the stairs two by two to his second floor condo. She had never showed up unannounced before so she hoped to God she wasn't interrupting something. She waited like five minutes outside his door before finally getting the balls up to knock softly on it.

He opened the door in sweats and no shirt on and his eyebrow raised. She forced herself to breath. "This is a surprise," he took note of her gym attire as well.

She stepped inside. "Yeah, well."

"Your breath smells like bourbon. How many drinks have you had Hailey?" He said, accusingly.

She glared at him. "One."

He swallowed hard and headed for the fridge. "I have a feeling like I'm going to need a lot of alcohol with where this conversation is going. Why don't you start with where you were?"

She took the beer he offered as they made their way to the couch. Blackhawks vs Sharks game was on. "Antonio's boxing gym with Kim. You know how I go there every Monday."

Jay felt a little bit of an idiot for forgetting that one because they didn't workout together on Monday's because she went there. Sometimes he went there but usually Kim and Hailey went together. Hailey was actually a pretty good boxer but that wasn't surprising and Antonio was showing Kim how to box. "And where'd you go drinking bourbon? Because I know you and you aren't a bourbon girl."

"Voight's."

Now that through Jay in for a loop as he put the shirt that was hanging on the back of his couch back on. "Why were you at our boss'?"

Hailey started ripping the label off her beer. She had absolutely no idea if she was going to take the job or not, but Voight was right; Jay deserved to hear it from her, first. "I got a job offer."

He turned to completely face her. "What?!"

She sucked in her lips and let out a deep breath. "DEA. They want me to do 9 months in Afghanistan and then a long term undercover op."

He was silent as he tried to process this all. Hailey in Afghanistan? It wasn't that she wasn't competent, because she was, but for God's sakes he did not want her over there. He wanted to protect her from the horrors he saw. He knew she wouldn't see them as much as a DEA Agent but still. And that wasn't even touching half of what his brain was thinking.

"Jay, say something, please," Hailey pleaded.

He took a long sip of his beer. "How long have they been recruiting you?" he tried to think of a timeline but damn, the girl was good. She had been acting a little off the past couple days but he hadn't thought much of it. A major job offer from the DEA would do that to a person though.

"Not long. They approached Voight a couple weeks ago when they started digging around about me but they never formally approached me until last week and even then it was informal until tonight."

"At the Thompson crime scene? Chris Lynch? Really?"

Hailey rolled her eyes. "I know. He's a complete ass but he's the SAC of Chicago and he made me a damn good job offer."

Jay took another sip of his beer before shaking his head. "Fuck you, Hailey. Why are you being selfish, not thinking of your entire team that your leaving behind and fucking even thinking about this?"

She put down her beer. "Oh! And fuck you too, Jay! Fuck you. Sorry for thinking about my fucking career!" She expected this response. She truly did and she was prepared for it. She was prepared for emotional Jay and she was ready for it and prepared to fight back as well.

"And the rest of us?"

"I just got a once in a lifetime job opportunity. No, congrats Hailey?"

He stood up and grabbed another beer out of his fridge. He took a look at her finishing hers grabbed a second and handed it to her as he sat down. "Don't fuck with me Upton. I know there's been other job offers. You're too good for other people to not be interested in you."

She looked at him and shook her head. "I don't get you. Did you know Lynch made me a job offer? Did Voight tell you?"

He shook his head. "I had my suspicions the minute Chris Lynch appeared at our crime scene. I know the FBI made you an offer last year."

Hailey took a deep breath. "I'm not Erin Lindsay."

His eyes were furious. "Why the fuck are you bringing her into this?"

"I know she took that damn job with the FBI in New York, ran away and left you without a word. I'm not Lindsay."

"Why are you bringing this up?" He was furious for bringing Lindsay into this conversation.

She looked at him. "Either way, I was going to tell you about the job offer. They just actually made me the formal one tonight. All the other conversations have been off the record. Jay, I don't run. I am not her so stop thinking I am. Stop. I am not leaving without a word or running off into the night. We're having an adult conversation, so start acting like it."

He was still glaring at her. "Nice to know I matter."

"Of course you matter. Why do you think I'm here?"

"What about FLETC?" He asked randomly. All federal agents had go through the federal law enforcement training center in Brunswick, Georgia.

She shrugged, taking a sip of her beer. "Already did my time there."

"Impressive. I guess this is why you have multiple federal law enforcement agencies pounding your door down?"

She shrugged again. "I don't know."

He sat back against the couch. "Is DEA really what you want to do?"

"I don't know what I really what, to be honest."

He sat there for a minute. "Afghanistan isn't a picnic, even as a DEA Agent, although you're not dumb and I know you know that. And then to go long term undercover? That's seriously fucked up. You gotta think about this, Hailey."

"They need me, Jay."

He shook his head. "Not like this, Hailey."

"What are you saying, Jay?"

He finished his beer and went to go grab the whiskey. He looked at her and she just nodded. She knew she was way past the point of driving, so what was another drink at this point? "You either go to Afghanistan or you go undercover, but don't do both and don't do it back to back. Take it from me, Hails. That shit fucks with you mentally. I've done both. Please, take it from me."

That was one of the only times he called her by her nickname, and it was generally either when he wanted to get a point across or as a term of endearment. "Why'd Lynch offer it to me then?"

He handed her a Jack Daniels and coke. "Because you've already done FLETC, you're a good cop and you have the undercover skills. He's not watching out for your mental state when you get back from that hell hole and three weeks later, you have to be someone else for a year. Hails, he's sending you on a suicide mission. You might be in the wire the whole time in Afghanistan but let me tell you, that shit gets to you."

"So you don't think I should take this job?"

"I think Chris Lynch is an absolute bastard," Jay said.

She rolled her eyes. "Not helping, because I already knew that."

"What do you want?"

She shrugged. "I have no idea."

"Do you want to even leave Chicago? You haven't said anything lately about wanting to leave?"

She slowly took a sip as she thought about her words carefully. "No. I finally have it somewhat good. I have a good unit, I don't want to kill my family more often than not which is impressive, I have friends outside of CPD finally, there's you."

"Me?"

She didn't really want to bring up Lindsay again because that didn't end well the first time, although he did need to be told that he needed to have this conversation like an adult. "We've got a good partnership going on, I don't want to fuck that up and leave."

He was silent for a couple seconds and then turned to her. "So don't sell your soul to Chris Lynch and stay in Chicago."

"It's not that easy, Jay."

He looked at her. "Hails, it is. You have FLETC under your belt, you're a good cop and working under Voight gives you a hella lotta street cred in this business."

She nodded. "Fair point." It did. Lynch brought that up as a factor. It was also a downside but more of an up than anything. Voight expected the best under his people and Intelligence had an exceptional close record in CPD because of that. '

"There's going to be other jobs. Maybe some other Lynch's along the ways but maybe someone who will actually give you what you want."

She sighed. "Yeah. Turning down a job like this though…"

Jay looked at her. "Are we going to dance around us?"

She looked at him. "Jay," she warned.

"I don't see you talking about jumping off a cliff for Chris Lynch to your family. You're here."

"You're my partner. Of course I'm going to be here, talking this shit out with you!"

He laughed quietly and sipped his whiskey. "Voight told you to come, didn't he?"

She just looked at him. "I think it was his way of saying to work shit out between us."

"So I think we need to work shit out. I don't want you to leave. There, I said it."

Hailey put her head in her hands and took a few deep breaths before she drank her drink. She could barely look at him but she did. "Personally or professionally?"

"Both."

She downed the rest of the drink and went into the kitchen to make more. Thankfully he left both the coke and the whiskey on the counter. "I don't even know how we do this Jay."

"I don't know either."

"Do you want to try? Because if you don't, you can walk right out this door and we can pretend this conversation never happened," he said, getting off the couch and approaching her as she was mixing her drink.

She swallowed hard and knew she had to make up her mind. "Yes. But, if we do this, we do this all the way."

He laughed a little. "Yeah, no question about that." And then he put his arms around his partner and held her for a second before tipping her head back and kissing her. He had wanted to do that for awhile but who knew that it would take a serious job offer and her almost taking it for them to decide that they wanted to be with each other, on and off the job.

AN: I am still not entirely sure if this will be a one shot or story. Thoughts?